Wikipedia shows a a long and confusing history for these words. There's no consensus on the distinction between them, but there are different conventions that people use:
The word "clave" has two meanings:
There's actually many different clave rhythms, for example:
Here's a lovely webpage detailing the different types of clave rhythms. Short, sweet, and highly recommended.
Son Clave is by far the most commonly used clave rhythm in Salsa music/dancing. It's the primary rhythm of Salsa, takes 2 measures of 4 beats to complete, and comes in two forms:
| 2-3 Clave ("reverse clave") |
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| 3-2 Clave ("forward clave") |
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Most Salsa music is played in 2-3 (reverse) clave.
All the musicians align themselves with the clave. Since dancing is the physical expression of music, if we want to be like one of the instruments, we should also be aligned with the clave. Therefore, the clave binds salsa dancing to salsa music.
Dancing on 1 is not aligned with the clave. It doesn't put you in the clave rhythm. It's more dancing on the melody. The pulsating movement is on the downbeat. Dancing on 1 has no correlation with the clave.
Dancing on 2 is more aligned with the clave, and thus is also called "dancing on the clave". People who dance On 2 are called "clave dancers".
Dancing On 2 is called "contra tiempo", or "against the time". That's because we dance on the upbeat, with the rhythm, not on the downbeat, with the melody. Dancing On1 is "a tiempo" (with time), as is the Rhumba. On 1 and Rhumba are on the downbeat.
If you walk into a room where someone is playing Son clave, you wouldn't know whether he's playing 3-2 or 2-3 clave, since that only depends on how he started to play, and you weren't there when he started. However, most people "naturally" hear 3-2 clave more readily than 2-3 clave. That is, our ears more naturally latch onto the forward clave than the reverse clave. Why?
The 3 side of Son Clave is busy. Strong. It has tension because of the syncopated (off-beat) note. For that reason, the 3 side is called "fuerte (strong).
In contrast, the 2 side is on the downbeat; unsyncopated. It's called debil (weak) and resolves the 3 side.
Since our ears are naturally tuned to resolve music tension, our perception of the Son clave is the 3-2 direction rather than 2-3 direction. Think of "Shave and a haircut -- two bits!"; you would never hear it as "Two bits -- shave and a haircut!"
Mambo comes from Danzon, the national dance of Cuba, which was mainly danced by the elite. Very few people of color danced the Danzon. It was danced in parts (different rhythms, movements, and music). At some point, a new part was added to the end of Danzon called "Nuevo Ritmo" (new rhythm). This became Mambo.
There's 2 tumbao rhythms: bass guitar (bhao) and conga. The tumbao of the conga is the dancer's connection to the clave. Getting the conga tumbao makes you better connected with the music than if you listen for the clave. Why? Because the clave rhythm is hard. The conga tumbao is easier; it's a shortcut to understanding Salsa. Additionally, the clave may only be implicit in the music (i.e. not played at all). The conga tumbao is almost always played.
There is a one conga tumbao and a two conga tumbao. We can align our dance steps on this tumbao. The whole purpose of this is to recognize the clave in the rhythm, not necessarily to hear the clave (since the clave may not even be explicitly present).
The second conga is usually bigger and deeper than the first conga.
Salsa music is usually played in 2-3 clave, and often starts with only one conga, which aligns itself with the 2 side of the clave.
When the second conga begins, it aligns itself with the 3 side of the clave. In other words, whenever you hear the 2nd conga, it's always coming in on the 3 side of the clave.
The second conga is also a "boom-boom!" sequence, and it falls on "and seven" on reverse clave (and "and three" on forward clave).